I am an Emily Blunt fan and have wanted to see the film adaptation of this novel for some time. However, I decided to read the book first given it came highly recommended.
Rachel Watson had what seemed the perfect life until her marriage breaks down resulting in divorce. Rachel catches the train to New York City each day and the story is told from her perspective looking out the train window. The train journey takes Rachel by her old house where her ex-husband lives with his new family. As well as watching that family, Rachel also begins observing a couple who now live a few houses down along the train track and imagining what their lives might be like. To Rachel they appear to have the perfect life, a life she should be living.
On one of her journeys she witnesses a disturbing event. The following day she wakes with no recollection of where she had been the previous day or what she had been doing. She subsequently becomes involved in a police investigation.
The story is narrated by the three main female characters in the book being Rachel, her ex-husband’s new wife and the lady who lives a few doors down from her old home. Each chapter is from one of their perspectives and the time sequences they relay their stories in are not in order. I enjoyed this style of writing for the first third of the book and it then became a little monotonous and I began to disengage.
However, there were some surprises along the way in plot development which kept me interested enough to continue on my reading journey. I had high expectations of the book and must say I was a little disappointed. Time to see how the movie compares. If you have read the book and seen the movie I would love to hear your thoughts on both.
